Tick Tock Goes the Clock
by South Western Djinn
Summary: The people of Camelot wake up form their reincarnation once more but this time Merlin is nowhere to be seen. On a quest to find their friend, they may find more than they bargained for.
1. Like Crystal

Merlin hurried through the war camp, carrying medical supplies double time into the tents where men were being patched back together like half-finished-not-quite-dead-yet Frankenstein projects. Blood stained everything and the scent was thick in the air, accompanied by the scents of antiseptic, burned flesh and the dearly departed. Despite this the entire camp felt _alive_. The Allies were closing in on Hitler and Germany's defeat was inevitable. The dying and living both were waiting with baited breath for the end of the war.

Merlin wheeled the supplies over to the head doctor and began to distribute the bandages and bottles of antiseptic to the nurses and other practitioners. He was desperate for this war of wars to end, too many of his loved ones were a part of it. Arthur, Gwaine and Lancelot had been at the front constantly while Morgana worked behind enemy lines leaving Merlin and Gwen behind in the trenches to wait and watch for the end when god willing all would be as it should, with them together still.

Merlin was frantic today, this last attack was meant to be the last of the war, a decisive end but it was close, so close. Every time that the others were reborn Merlin remained and over centuries of practice, of watching them die and waiting for their rebirth, Merlin had developed an inner timer, this timer was right almost to the day and it was nearing the end of this cycle now. Soon, soon someone he loved would die and the wheels would begin to turn again.

He worked like a maniac in the medical wing to distract himself from his thoughts, cruel and dark as they were. He loved all of his friends, really he did, but these feelings had gradually crept into his heart over the last few centuries, during the last few cycles of death and rebirth. Every time he felt their time together coming to an end he found himself wishing, pleading and hoping against hope that Arthur would last the longest, that the first to die would be someone, anyone else but his prince of Avalon. And they were close, so close that he could almost taste it, so strong and so close a feeling that his heart felt as though it had already left his chest and was beating from some frenzied future he could not see, only feel.

Suddenly the radio began screaming static at them as the long awaited message came over the air waves, "Germany has surrendered!" Amidst the cheers and screams of joy Merlin felt something snap, the inner timer chimed once, the first of many had gone.

Arthur was dead.

In that moment, that horrible silence after the toll, Merlin felt his heart rip asunder. He had tried so hard to hold the love of centuries, to stretch his love across the ages and reach into the future that he had not noticed the signs: the fraying at the edges the long thin threads flying away in the wind and the deep darkness within; the creeping despair that had never spread its wings until now.

The hopelessness and loneliness of waiting for centuries for his loved ones stretched ahead of the wizard, a dark expanse that went on and on and on. Once it had been passable but now it is an endless trench in front of Merlin that he would never see the end of. The moments he would have with Lancelot, Gwaine, Morgana, Gwen and Arthur were bright stepping stones in that darkness but now they were too far apart, like the distances between stars, and where before he could see their light and wait for them to come his way now all he could see was the empty spaces between.

In that instant his magic was under his control for once and not the other way round. Unable to escape the pull of the future he shattered like glass, reflecting the world and all its facets like crystal.


	2. Finding John

Arthur spun his keys around his index finger watching the light flash on and off of the movement. This era was plain, flat-out, BORING! He had never been so bored in any of his previous lives but this one took the cake and most of it was due to the absence of one particular, addle-headed wizard.

Yep, that's right. Merlin.

Morgana was always the first to "awaken" or remember the past and every previous time she had she had been met by Merlin. This time she had awoken to find no one was waiting for them. They were in the 21st century and their best friend, their guardian and protector was gone. As the others had awoken the mystery had deepened. No one could find the sorcerer.

And it wasn't as though there were a lot of people they could ask about it either. Hey have you seen our eternal wizard friend around lately? No? Oh well do let us know if you get any clues or something like that. Cheerio! No. It just wasn't doable. The only person who could have kept track of Merlin for the last few centuries would have been…

Arthur snapped his fingers and whirled to Morgana, "The dragon! John! Where is he?"

"How should I know?" she asked waspishly, "It's not like I keep tabs on him!"

Lancelot spoke up his stance of repressed eagerness, "Before we went to the front he said he'd be staying in Scotland for a while, he might still be there" he said his eyes alight with hopeful excitement.

Arthur grinned and slapped his most trustworthy knight hard on the back. "By god, you might have something there, Lance!" He turned back to Morgana and Gwen, "We'll start there. He likes places that are mountainous, are there any towns with higher ground in Scotland?"

Gwaine snorted and grabbed an Atlas from under the coffee table, flipping through the pages until he found a close up of the Scotland territory. He nodded and traced the map with a casual finger, "Yep, we've got three…no five, all here along this lake" he tapped the spot with a finger, "If the dra—John is anywhere, it'll be somewhere around here".

They crowded around the map, even Morgana and studied it.

Gwen's soft spoken voice decided it, "We should start with the lowlands surrounding the lake and work out from there, going higher as we go outwards".

Gwaine grinned approvingly, "Couldn't have said it better myself!"

Arthur let a wild grin stretch across his face at the thought of finally having a lead, finally having something to do that had purpose! He jumped up and strode up the stairs. "Well come on you lazy lot!" He called, "We've got a dragon to find!"

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With a little trepidation the group of adventurers pushed open the door to the local tavern and slid in, looking around for their quarry. There, in the back of the room next to the fire and an open window sat an old, wiry man with bright golden eyes and a sharp edge to his smile. White hair and white whiskers framed his brown face and made him look as though he had been frosted by father winter after a day at the beach.

They made their way over to him. He saw them and Arthur could swear a pained expression flickered across his face before he greeted them. "Well, well! If it isn't the young adventurers out on another quest no doubt!" He laughed, "What can I help you with my young friends?"

Arthur sat himself beside John Hurt, the former dragon of Camelot and spoke self-assuredly, "We need to know if you've seen Merlin!"

As the others sat down at the table around him the grumpy old man who was once a dragon snorted and crossed his wiry arms over his chest, blowing through his whiskers, "Quite frankly I haven't seen hide nor hair of the troublesome young man since you left last time!"

Though it was still considered more polite to refer to their multiple deaths as the times they had "left" there was still an uncomfortable silence as he continued, "Ever since the end of WWII I haven't heard from him."

Arthur broke the silence, "But surely you must have heard _something_!" He pleaded hoarsely, "Something… _anything_!"

John's voice when he spoke was quiet and nearly apologetic, "I have nothing to tell you! Since that German devil surrendered and you died, Arthur, I have not received even an inkling of awareness from the warlock." He looked up from the grain in the table and his tone was ominous, "If I could believe it I would almost say it was as if Merlin had died and was between cycles."

Silence stretched around the table.

Gwaine shook his head, "That's impossible," he breathed, "We all know that Merlin is the only one of us who is not part of the cycle. He never is in cycle."

The dragon gave him a sharp look and snapped, "On the contrary, Merlin is the anchor that is the center of the cycle!" He let his gaze meet each of theirs in turn, stopping on Arthur's, "Merlin is as much a part of this game as any of us. He is the pin that goes through the hands of the clock, through the face and deep within, the key that turns the pegs of fate and through them the world. The fact that we are here at all proves he lives… in some form or another," he mused.

Lancelot looked at him quizzically, "Wait…in 'some form or another'? What does that mean?"

John turned towards him impatiently, "It means exactly what it sounds like, though Merlin has never gone through the cycle as we have that is not to say that he could not be affected by it in some way shape or form".

Morgana shook her head and raised one well-manicured hand to her temple, "Wait, wait, wait! We've just discussed this, Merlin _cannot_ be reborn as we are!"

John crossed his arms and smirked. He nodded, "Precisely".

Gwen burst in, running over Morgana in the process, "But you just said—?"

The Dragon barked at her angrily, "I said he was not as he was before! Something has changed, something we are not privy to!"

"Are you _sure_ you don't know anything?"

John turned and glared tiredly at Arthur, "_Yes_! For the last time!"

Arthur's gaze fell and his shoulders slumped, "I see".

John watched the fallen king from the corner of his golden eyes, "What will you do now?" he asked, "Will you continue? Now that it isn't so easy and you are the one doing the searching instead of him? Or will you give up?"

Arthur's gaze was a dark fire when he met the dragon's gaze. He jerked to his feet and snarled, "I would never give up that easily, not for anyone else and especially" he shouted, "Especially not for Merlin!"

As the bar slowly regained its usual noise John chuckled and pulled the passionate young man back into his seat, "I understand, boy, I do". He turned to the others, "Now then, as a matter of fact I have learned a little regarding Merlin."

He raised his hands and smiled at their outraged cries, "Creatures of old magic can sense the location of others of the same blood. This is how Merlin always manages to find you when you are reborn," he explained, "As soon as I noticed your death young man," he nodded to Arthur, "I tried to contact Merlin, he's usually so distraught after the first goes you know. Anyway I tried to find him using the old magic. Normally I would have been able to see a slight shimmer in the air, a trail if you will, that led to Merlin, however," he paused, "There was no clear trail. The thread that I knew to be Merlin went straight for a few feet then there was an absolutely horrid knot. It obstructed everything around it and whether his thread disappeared into it, or shredded and _became_ it I don't know. At any rate, I could not follow the original thread in that mess and I was forced to leave it. I did notice however," he held up a finger, "that though only Merlin's thread appeared to go into the knot, _seven_ were leaving it."

"_Seven_?" Gwaine's eyes bugged out of his head, "Does this have some significance that I'm not understanding?"

Morgana rolled her eyes and enlightened him, "It's a religious reference, 7 days in creation, 7 deadly sins, 7 sacraments, and 7 terraces in purgatory."

Just as Gwaine was going to ask another question John interrupted, "Though Morgana is indeed right and there is heavy symbolism in the _Bible_ regarding the number seven I found something else makes even more sense." He raised an eyebrow and finished, "In Arabic, any number involving seven is usually alluding to a very high number or an _infinite _one". He waited as this registered in their minds and the light bulb flickered on in their eyes, "Seven could symbolize something infinite".

Lancelot coughed and rolled his eyes, "Though this is convincing, who is to say it symbolizes anything at all? It might just be coincidence."

Gwen nodded thoughtfully and mused, "But then again what if it isn't? What if it's a clue?"

They all perked up.

"A clue?" Arthur asked, "What would it lead to though? Nothing is infinite except math theories and we're right back where we started!"

They fell into a dejected silence again.

Lancelot spoke up, "Why not just start from the beginning?" he asked, "Why not follow one of the seven threads?"

Arthur snapped his fingers, "You've done it again Lance!" He turned back to the dragon, "What about it? Why wouldn't that work?"

John grimaced in a pained way and explained, "I already tried that, the strings are fairly solid where they are tangled but once they are a few hundred feet away from it they begin to disintegrate, its like trying to follow a trail of dust after its been spread to the four corners."

Arthur's jaw tightened, "Well you'll just have to try again!"

John stared at him and glowered, "Don't presume to order me around boy!" He wilted a little under their glares, "But since I would like to find him again as well, I suppose it couldn't hurt." With that he concentrated and began his search. After a moment he frowned and looked up, "I can't tell you exactly where he is, but a part of him is somewhere around the London area." He sounded huffy, "Now if you don't mind I have many things I need to—"

Arthur grabbed him and between him and Gwaine began to haul him out the door. "Yes, you do, you're coming with us!"

"Arrgh! I didn't sign up for this you ingrates!"


End file.
